The Weekly Meal Plan

Rosh Hashanah Dessert Table

Tonight is the eve of the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah, so I celebrated with friends and family, and partook in some of my favorite foods: Tsimmes, a dish of braised beef, carrots, and sweet potatoes, my grandmother’s potato kugel, blueberry cheese pie (what we call cheesecake), and my mom’s carrot cake!

My aunt pulled out all the tricks. She always has a great wine selection (and hard liquor – clutch for any family situation.) And the evening starts with a well curated cheese board, and chopped liver for us traditionalists. Cooper, the lab, was sniffing around for crumbs, but feeling under the weather, so alas, I couldn’t share with him any of my generous cracker schmears. Not that I’d ever do something like that.

We also had salmon, beef tenderloin, a deconstructed cabbage roll casserole, green beans, and vegetarian lasagna. And then dessert: the aforementioned cheese pie and carrot cake, a Venezuelan layered dessert called Marquesa, lemon meringue pie, apple crumble, and fruit.

So it’s possible that I won’t need to eat for a few days, but I’m still on the hook for a healthy meal Monday through Thursday this week. On Friday, I’m running Reach the Beach (a 200 mile relay through my home state of New Hampshire, so my meal will likely be some American Chop Suey served to me in an elementary school cafeteria around midnight!

Hard Boiled Eggs Meal Prep

Here’s what’s on the docket this week. The weekly cook-up, which, in addition to my dinners make up my breakfasts, lunches and snacks for the week:

– cook a large batch of greens
– hardboil eggs
– braise green beans with tomato
– make fennel salad (this holds!)
– chop peppers for snacks
– make pesto

Monday: grilled jerk chicken with fennel salad

Tuesday: pork tenderloin with pesto and zucchini noodles

Wednesday: roasted fish with sticky roasted tomatoes and garlic

Thursday: steak and potatoes with green beans.

A pot of mint tea

And here’s a closing note for you of my favorite evening ritual: a pot of herb tea. I’ve been alternating between fresh mint, and dried lemon verbena. I took a good portion of my mom’s plant, and have been supplementing my habit with the leaves from Stearns Farm.

What’s on your dinner table this week?

The Weekly Meal Plan

The Weekly Meal Plan

Well, hello! Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I stayed in New England, where my aunt managed to pack 45 people into her house (we held a coup last year to stop going to the large function facility, but I don’t think that anyone was expecting everyone to show up in the house!) I held back from taking leftovers, except the leftovers of the cheese plate, because, well, cheese.

This year I didn’t sign up for a Turkey trot, but managed my very own little Turkey trot (to coffee), and back, because our office had free t-shirts on the line to any of us who completed a 5k, and I am highly motivated by free things. While in the fitness spirit, I managed to score a few Black Friday deals (mostly on cycling/running/fitness gear), and am looking forward to the goodies coming my way.

My winter training plan was challenging this week – base line testing in swimming, cycling, and running. While running theoretically is my best sport of the three, I’ve been focused on really slow distance running, and that, ahem, shows in my pace. Looking forward to speeding up a little bit as I push forward in three sports! I missed two of the seven workouts (because of the holiday gym schedule, and my general lack of preparation), but this week I’m hoping to jump in 100%.

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Week of November 30th

After my house got a deep clean this weekend, I also did the same for the refrigerator – I did my best today to toss all of the old condiments, jars with mysterious contents, and find more appropriate containers for things that I’d managed to eat half of. Things to use up in my kitchen: after the purge, little was left – cabbage, fennel, celery, beets, onion, mint. Some miso butter, bacon, parmesan, a hot dog, and some milk.

Saturday: Trader Joe’s Make Your Own Meal! I generally try to make us a meal that we both share, but some nights it works best for us to head to the store and get our own meals. Devon got franks and beans, and I got a frozen wild salmon entree. I made myself a side of fennel salad.

Sunday: monkfish with miso butter, mashed potatoes, fennel salad Monkfish is a meaty (odd looking) fish, that stands up well to bold flavors – in this case, the leftover miso butter that has been sitting in my fridge for weeks. (Half white miso paste, half butter). One kitchen mistake was to mash my baby potatoes with my immersion blender, and they ended up a tad gluey.

Monday: fresh ham steak, cabbage and onions, green beans. I’m still not 100% sure how I’m going to cook the pork – possibly a sear and roast job – but it’s defrosting right now in my fridge, from my CSA haul.

Tuesday: chicken sausage chili. This was supposed to be turkey chili, but I forgot to buy the ground turkey at the grocery store, and happen to have a few chicken sausage links that needed to be used. I’ll likely spice the meat with cumin, dump in a jar of salsa, and a can of tomatoes, and add any extra vegetable that I can find in my freezer.

Wednesday: köfte (Turkish meatballs) with mashed cauliflower and tomato salad. These spicy little meatballs are one of my favorite foods.

Thursday: A holiday party! The party itself isn’t dinner, but I’ll be out until around 10:00 pm. Emergency eggs if I end up needing dinner, but most likely, I’ll be too stuffed.

Friday: out!

What are you eating this week?

–– Sam

Blueberry Orange Smoothie + the Weekly Meal Plan

Blueberry Orange Smoothie

Okay, I recognize the fact that this “recipe” has two ingredients. But some of my favorite recipes are really that simple, and in the summertime I’m not inclined to do anything that feels too much like cooking. One of my current summer goals is to make full use of my glorious Vitamix – so I’ve been doing a whole bunch of green juices and smoothies lately. Typically I try to go for all vegetable varieties, but as a post workout snack, I’ll stick some fruit into the mix. Here was yesterday’s sweet-tart combination:

Blueberry-Orange Smoothie

1 cup frozen unsweetened blueberries (wild organic from Maine, if possible)

1 cup orange juice

Put blueberries in a blender, add a cup of orange juice, and blend until smooth. {To this, you could add some plain yogurt, or a frozen banana, or an ounce of gin, or some frozen spinach if you are feeling virtuous, but frankly, it’s quite refreshing on it’s own.}

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For the holiday weekend we drove up to Montreal, but I was excited to get home, because waiting for me was my brand new bicycle, Beyoncé! I haven’t had my own two wheels in several years, so I spent a few hours on Sunday evening taking her around and practicing starting and stopping. The seat height is about 6 inches taller than I’m used to, but the bike rides like a dream. My first ride was a 12 mile leisurely (read: very very slow) trip. I tried to avoid pedestrians, birds, and squirrels, and made it safely home in one piece… Once I get my training wheels off, I’ll be using her for longer distances, maybe some commuting, and dare I say it, triathlons?

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The other part of my Sunday was spent food shopping. I made my way to the store (three actually, none of which had real full fat buttermilk?!) to stock up for this week’s meals. I’ve been reading my way through Diana Henry’s new book A Change of Appetite, and dreaming of all the vegetal foods that we’ll be eating to make up for our gastronomic excess this week in Canada.

Per usual, I start out with a list that changes on a whim based on what’s looking good at the store. (Forgive the spelling mistakes…”buratta”?? I should know better.) Wild sockeye steaks were on sale for 9.99, so that’s coming up for Monday night, nectarines were as hard as rocks, so they got replaced by cherries, and while I had the full intention of actually cooking something last night, I ended up with chopped up leftovers tossed in salad for dinner.

Weekly Shopping List

Happy Monday everyone! What will you be cooking up this week?

Weekly Meal Plan

Asparagus

Oh, for shame! All I can say is that not-quite-in-season, imported produce is a temptress, and I am weak. WEAK! When I lived in San Francisco, it was a whole lot easier to turn down the stuff, but here, in this freezing grey northeast, I must admit that I succumbed to the $2.99 bunch of non-organic-flew-thousands-of-miles-to-get-to-my-plate-asparagus that was on sale today. They were thin, crunchy, and flavorful, and in my fantasy, I pretended that spring has sprung.

Week of Saturday, March 1st

Saturday: Leftover cumin braised chicken thighs, steamed asparagus, and Annie’s mac & cheese. I left the store tonight with part of my cart looking like an eight year old had picked out the contents. There’s also a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ‘Cinnamon Buns’ in the freezer now. (Do not head to the store hungry.)

Sunday: Pork tenderloin with sweet potato wedges, avocado, and roasted brussels sprouts. This doesn’t feel very Oscar worthy, but I’ll probably be reading an excellent book tomorrow during dinner (I’m captivated by the early review copy of Delancey that I’m reading right now!), and so it seems like a suitable enough meal.

Monday: Shakshuka (eggs simmered in a tomato sauce), and salad. This is perpetually my favorite quick meal to put together. Sometimes I’ll add roasted red peppers, other times, a little feta. It’s light, it’s vegetarian, and it’s terribly satisfying.  

Tuesday: Thai chicken curry legs. I have a little container of Mae Ploy Thai yellow curry paste that I picked up at H-Mart a few weeks ago, and a few spoonfuls go into the pot with some chicken and a little bit of stock. I’ll likely add a few cups of roasted carrots, and a can of full fat coconut milk.

Wednesday: Turkish spinach and ground beef. This dish is really more spinach than anything else, served with a little bit of garlicky yogurt sauce. 

Thursday: Wing it. By wing it, I’d love to make some Greek shrimp (or fish) with tomato and feta, but it’ll depend on what I can find fresh on Thursday evening. I’ll swing by the store to pick it up after work, instead of making my purchase on the weekend. 

Friday: Out. 

What’s on your table this week?

–– Sam

Photos from the woods + eats, this week.

It’s Thursday already, and I feel like the week is escaping me. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about writing and running – and how it helps to break up both into small increments, and it’s better if you only write a paragraph or run a single mile than none at all. On the running front, I’ve started a new 28 day streak to kick off the beginning of a long race season. At the beginning of summer I did a streak from Memorial Day to the Fourth of July, and I made it to the penultimate day, after which I pretty much sat on rear unapologetically. I find that it’s a heck of a lot easier to head out when I know that I “have to”. Before we discuss this week’s meal plan, here are some photos from a few weeks ago, from my trip out to North Conway. It was especially beautiful out there.

For nearly four days we were surrounded by mountains, rivers, and streams in Hale’s Location. (The smallest town in New Hampshire, and the first town to vote in the national election!) Alison and I hiked through the woods, headed up Cathedral Ledge, looked over to Echo Lake. We went on long drives, took photos of trains, visited popped into the wacky Zeb’s General Store, and browsed the shelves at White Birch Books. I had a great Cortado at Frontside Grind – a new coffee shop of note in the area. And we shopped at the outlets, which, I should let you know, includes a Brookstone outlet. I had to hold myself back from emptying my entire wallet. Those massage chairs at steep discounts? Mhmm? You know the ones. The men, on the other hand, were cooped up in the house recording all weekend. They did manage to accompany us one evening to the Ben & Jerry’s in North Conway, where we pulled up at the same time as a summer camp bus. The Coconut 7 Layer Bar Ice Cream was worth the annoyance. Also. Middle Schoolers these days. I think I’m old, because seriously the short length on those kids was scandalous.

And then, of course, there was food. Massive, massive amounts of food. I took very few photos of food, possibly because we were surrounded by it constantly, and health went out the window. At some point I became deeply ashamed at how many Trader Joe’s mushroom turnovers and mini pot pies I consumed. There was Sicilian pizza from Elvio’s, croissants for breakfast, and elaborate sandwich spreads for lunch. Saturday we made dinner on the grill – hamburgers, hot dogs, baby potatoes, asparagus and corn. We made s’mores in the fire pit, and then the next morning there was warm fresh cornbread, biscuits, bacon and eggs. Monday morning we had pancakes, waffles, more eggs, ham, and bacon. And then there were pounds of food left, and we ate leftovers for days.

Coming home, I was craving kale like nobody’s business, and I’ve been stuffing myself with nutrient-packed meals for the past few weeks to recover.

This week’s meal plan includes home cooked meals every day this week, in preparation for a weekend in New York for the wedding (including three separate events!). Of course, Monday, our “home cooked meal” ended up being takeout Vietnamese food from Pho So 1 Boston in Randolph, after having to make a late night trip to IKEA to purchase three ceiling lamps for the electrician to put in the kitchen. Wait, that’s right, I now have THREE lights in my kitchen. That, I swear, is momentous. Not only can I take photographs of food at night now that don’t look horrific… I can probably have guests. Before now, the table in the kitchen was pretty much in darkness past 6 p.m.

:: Turkey Kofte (Turkish meatballs), with a big green salad with tomato, cucumber and avocado. Usually Sunday night is my seafood night, but my planned crab salad went out the window when the grocery stores were seemingly out of everything.

:: Orange-Mustard Baked Chicken Thighs. Loosely adapted from ‘Dinner, a Love Story‘, by Jenny Rosenstrach. Chicken thighs baked with a sauce of marmalade and mustard. Served with steamed broccoli.

:: Cumin Lamb Chops with Carrot Salad and Stewed Zucchini. Well, it’ll be cumin if I feel like it. The other option will be just lightly seasoned with salt, and topped with a vibrant salsa verde.

:: Wednesday Beans and Greens. I like the idea of having stand-by theme nights such as “taco night”, or “fish night” (Sunday) to help take the stress out of constructing a meal.

:: Creamy Tomato Chicken with Basil. Another dinner adapted from ‘Dinner, a Love Story‘, by Jenny Rosenstrach.

:: Crab Salad with Avocado, Tomato, Basil and Lemon Vinaigrette. This was supposed to be Sunday’s dinner – I even got a perfectly ripe avocado for the occasion, but alas I was thwarted. We usually have Friday night dinner out, but we will be staying in this week.

And Fitness? This week I’m going to be kicking it up into gear. I have several fall races coming up, including a 200 mile relay in less than three weeks, and I haven’t been doing a lot of running in the past three weeks, so I’ll be adding back in my daily mile, at minimum. This is a good excuse to build on my running. [The three miles of walking on weekdays is my usual their and back commute walk.]

Monday: 3 mile walk + mile run
Tuesday: 3 mile walk + evening stroll/mile run
Wednesday: 3 mile walk, CrossFit Olympic Lifting Class + mile run
Thursday: 3 mile walk + mile run
Friday: 3 mile walk + running
Saturday: Off – Mike + Keren’s Wedding (although, I’ll be walking in New York)
Sunday: Off – Mike + Keren’s Wedding